(Thought I'd post it so others don't accidentally read the [FONT="]ridiculous Hume[/FONT] article while on the star website.)
Reitman directs $22M benefit
Disclosure meant to halt naysaying about terms of Lightbox mega-deal
September 13, 2007
Martin Knelman
Ivan Reitman, local boy turned Hollywood tycoon, could be seen any day this week prowling around Yorkville.
That's hardly a surprise, because during the Toronto International Film Festival, many major players in the movie world hang out here. And this year Jason Reitman, son of the Ghostbusters mogul, is here as director of Juno, one of the hottest festival entries.
Flashback to Ivan Reitman's much more surprising trip to Toronto a month ago to attend a meeting of the TIFF board. He was a man on a mission – Rumourbuster.
The problem: Nasty whispers were swirling around Reitman's mega deal to build a condo tower and a glittery new TIFF headquarters (recently named the Bell Lightbox) on prime land owned for years by his family and used as a commercial parking lot.
According to the naysayers, the festival's co-venture with the Reitmans and their condo development partner, The Daniels Corp., was a bonanza for them but not such a great deal for the festival.
Accompanied by his two sisters and Daniels president Mitchell Cohen, Reitman made a passionate speech. It was clearly time to disclose exactly what the Daniels and the Reitmans were handing to the festival.
Cut to the chase: Today, as the 32nd edition of the festival nears its final phase, the TIFF Group will announce that the value of benefits being provided by the Reitmans and Daniels group amounts to $22 million.
That sum – which positions the developers among the four largest donors to the Lightbox, along with the governments of Canada ($25 million) and Ontario ($25 million) and Bell (about $30 million, sources say) – could go a long way toward squelching grumblers and doubt-mongers.
As Reitman and Cohen emphasized in an interview with the Toronto Staryesterday, the $22 million represents a philanthropic contribution, not just a clause of a business deal.
The disclosure is timely in that fundraisers – pressing hard to raise the final 30 per cent of the festival's $196 million capital needs so it can move into the Bell Lightbox in late 2009 – had been encountering resistance from prospective major donors.
"There have been a lot of misconceptions we want to clear up," said Reitman, dismissing claims of skeptics about the deal being one-sided.
"The festival considered a lot of other potential partners," he said. "We were by far the most generous, and we had by far the best location in the heart of the Entertainment District."
How is the $22 million calculated? Using current market values, according to Cohen, the right to build on the site at King and John Sts. is worth $17 million. Plus the developers are waiving about $5 million in project-management fees.
As well, Reitman and Cohen revealed the Lightbox's inside square footage (over five floors) has been increased from 150,000 sq. ft. to 175,000 sq. ft.
The Lightbox will be a five-storey "podium building" joined to the Festival Tower, a condo needle rising 41 storeys above it.
In years to come, according to Cohen, the TIFF group will have the right to sell the Lightbox in the unlikely event it wants to. Its annual costs to occupy the building are expected to be about $1.6 million.
Daniels and the Reitmans will have a revenue stream from the underground parking now under construction, and from two restaurants in the complex.
"The fact that we get to use the land we've always had doesn't reduce the value of the gift to the film festival," Reitman said.
Piers Handling, CEO of the TIFF Group, says: "This is a legacy gift, and it's hugely generous. We would not have a new home on the horizon were it not for the generosity of these people."
The deal allows Daniels and the Reitmans to retain certain naming rights, so far undetailed.
The condos are being marketed with emphasis on the TIFF connection: "One part condo. One part film festival. A world first!"
According to Cohen, 250 of the 378 units – ranging from $300,000 to $2 million – have been pre-sold.
Last week many prospective buyers received a special offer – a chance on Saturday (the festival's closing day) to buy a unit in what is billed as a one-day-only red carpet sales event. "To purchase a suite, please bring a deposit cheque in the amount of $5,000."
The cheques the TIFF Group still needs from benefactors will need to have more zeroes than that.